The driving force behind our weather here over the next few days will be a fairly strong ridge of high pressure — which will become firmly established over southeastern Canada during the upcoming weekend. A weak cold front moving through Quebec early Friday will dissipate later in the afternoon, and then the strong zone of high pressure will be building across the Great Lakes and into the Northeast late Friday and Saturday.

After many places have failed to get out of the 40s Thursday, we’ll be seeing more locations reaching the lower 50s  — and most of the Greater Baltimore Area will wind up in the lower 50s during the upcoming weekend. With the clockwise circulation surrounding that zone of high pressure ushering in a light northeasterly wind Saturday, the exact orientation of this feature Sunday and Monday should ultimately determine how the sky cover will be.

The tendency for the core of the high pressure system to reach the Canadian Maritimes Saturday night and on Sunday will keep surface winds primarily out of the northeast, but it may develop more of an easterly component Sunday night and especially on Monday.